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Pittsburgh could be considered the epicenter of the coming college football season.
From the middle of the University of Pittsburgh campus look west to Columbus, Ohio, then south to Morgantown, W.Va., and east to State College, Pa. Within those boundaries, fans can find some of the most potent offensive weapons in college football.
There is that impossible-to-ignore tandem at Pitt: sophomore running back Dion Lewis, who was the most-decorated freshman in the country last season, and junior wide receiver Jon Baldwin, a 1,000-yard receiver in 2009 whose skills are reminiscent of another former Panthers great, Larry Fitzgerald.
Down in Morgantown, senior running back Noel Devine is a home-run threat each time he touches the ball. In his career, he has 11 runs of 50 yards or longer, including seven of more than 70 yards.
At Penn State, senior tailback Evan Royster was a first-team All-Big Ten selection and needs fewer than 500 yards to become that school's all-time leading rusher.
In Columbus, there is Ohio State dual-threat junior quarterback Terrelle Pryor, the Jeannette native who has had two of the three games in Buckeyes history in which a quarterback has rushed for 100 yards or more and passed for 200 or more in same game.
"Wow," West Virginia coach Bill Stewart said, his head shaking slightly in amazement. "Talk about some players! Now those young men -- all of them -- are players. I mean players.
PG PDFs"The best of the best; this region should be proud."
These players play in a Rust Belt region known more for turning out hefty linemen and run-stopping linebackers. They play for programs many college football fans think have been outgunned in terms of offense by schools in the South and West.
Lewis, the 5-foot-8, 195-pound mixture of muscle and electricity who gained 1,799 yards last year, has heard it all before, the talk that part of his success has come because he plays in what some fans perceive as one of the weaker conferences.
"It is there, I understand it," he said. "I don't agree with it, but I understand it. In the Big East, maybe we don't always play some of the powerhouses like the [Southeastern Conference] schools. But, talent-wise, I know Noel Devine is just as good as any back in the SEC.
"I've watched him play and I've seen what he can do. If he goes to an SEC school right now, he's going to do the same things," Lewis said of the the Mountaineers' star. And, Lewis said, if he played in the SEC, the Pitt star would be "the same guy."
Make no mistake, that thought process is not exclusive to Lewis.
"He took Pitt to another level last year and will continue to; Dion Lewis could play anywhere, and I mean anywhere," West Virginia's Stewart said. "What a scare he puts into you as an opposing coach. Every time he touches it, it is a first down. He carries it with such a demeanor, a demeanor as tough as any young man playing college football right now. It is simple with him, he refuses to go down."
Lewis' teammate, Baldwin, also would be a star player anywhere.
"Same thing with him," Devine said of Baldwin. "People talk about all these schools in the South and everything and how the players are better. I'm from Florida. Some of these Big East players could play for Florida, for Alabama, for anybody."
Stewart sees Baldwin as scary. "Jon Baldwin is frightening on the football field, even just watching him run out of the tunnel. That's the good Lord within that young man. Can't teach much of what that young man possesses."
There have been brilliant flashes from Baldwin time and again, but, one sticks in the memory of West Virginia kicker Tyler Bitancurt. Oddly, it was a play Baldwin did not make, but one he nearly made.
On Bitancurt's winning, 43-yard field goal against Pitt last season, Baldwin was inserted into the field-goal block team as a jumper. There is a photograph showing Baldwin jumping outrageously high, swinging his arm and just missing batting the ball down.
"Oh yeah, that play, I've seen the photo and it is amazing, that kid is amazing," Bitancurt said. "I've never seen anyone jump that high before in my life. He was up there."
At West Virginia, Devine is the player who will never be up there. At just 5 feet 8, he is a waterbug-type runner who can change a game in an instant with a breakaway run.
"He is very impressive to me," Lewis said of Devine. "He beats you with pure speed. ... Me, I'm more of a make-people-miss-in-open-space [runner] and I run tough in between the tackles.
"I don't have the same kind of speed Noel has, but I am able to do some other things. But I see him do things with that speed and, yes, that is impressive, and I watch all the backs in college and that is impressive.
"You wonder who in college football is faster in the open field?"
Perhaps no one.
There also might be no one in college football with more fanfare this season than Pryor. He has continued the metamorphosis from an athlete playing quarterback to a quarterback who happens to be a world-class athlete.
Lost in the development, some people forget that Pryor is 19-3 as a starting quarterback and led his team to the Big Ten Conference title the past two seasons.
"He really focused on becoming the best he could be," Ohio State coach Jim Tressel said. "And now he has a new team that he's, without question, looked to for leadership. So, I feel good about where he is right now. He's always thinking about football."
A good portion of the state of Ohio always seems to be thinking about Pryor in the fall, and that might be why he might be different than the other offensive players mentioned here. Simply, the fan focus that squeezes him can be overwhelming. Pryor's quarterbacks coach Nick Siciliano, a Youngstown native, understands the scrutiny.
"I don't know if anyone truly grasps it, unless you were born and raised to be the quarterback at Ohio State. And who has, truly, been born and raised to be the Ohio State quarterback?" Siciliano said. "In my opinion, being the quarterback at Ohio State is the toughest job in the state. It is tougher than being the head coach here, harder than being the governor, harder than being the mayor of Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati. I think it is a whole different world for an individual if you don't understand what you are getting into. And that's hard for an 18-year-old kid.
"In saying that, that is the kind of thing people don't understand with Terrelle. He's got the hope of a lot of people on his shoulders and he has still performed very well and is striving, every day, to perform even better. The pressure on him could overwhelm others, very easily."
Overwhelming Big Ten defenses is the job of Penn State tailback Royster, who took an unlikely road to his place in college football. Royster was a highly regarded lacrosse player in high school in Virginia and was pursued by college lacrosse powers Virginia and Johns Hopkins, but instead chose football.
Royster should end his career as the leading rusher in Penn State history. He needs 481 yards to pass former Nittany Lions great Curt Warner, who gained 3,398 yards.
Royster has gained more than 100 yards in a game 12 times in the past three seasons. Penn State is 12-0 in those games.
Performances like those, from all the aforementioned players, have them on watch lists for some of college football's most prestigious awards including the most significant one -- the Heisman Trophy.
If one of these players wins the Heisman, it would mark a return to a day when this part of the country turned out the best offensive skill players college football had to offer.
Between 1973-76, this region had a firm stranglehold on the Heisman
Penn State running back John Cappelletti won it in 1973, Ohio State running back Archie Griffin grabbed it in 1974 and '75, and Pitt running back Tony Dorsett claimed it in 1976.
Since Dorsett won the Heisman Trophy, there has been a shift away from the northeast with five Southern California players winning it along with three from Oklahoma, two each from Texas and Miami.
Since Dorsett won, just three Heisman winners -- Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith (2006), running back Eddie George (1995) and Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie (1984) -- have come from Columbus or a point northeast.
Could this be the year that changes?
"It is a great honor, being up for all these awards and everything, and you can't totally block it out, you think about it sometimes," Lewis said.
"I think it is more of an honor for the school, though. Honestly, I never say, 'Well, I need to do this to win the Heisman.' I just show up and practice and I show up and play. I like, though, that the school gets more limelight from this. I like that when people talk about it, that Pitt gets some of the spotlight and not just me.
"I just go out and play, and try to be one of the best."
All these guys -- Lewis, Baldwin, Devine, Pryor and Royster -- are among the best.
Anywhere.
Check out Ray Fittipaldo's Pitt B-Ball blog and Paul Zeise's Pitt Stop videos about football exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.
